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tv   FOX News Sunday With Chris Wallace  FOX News  May 27, 2012 11:00pm-12:00am PDT

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thank you for watching on this memorial day we remember the men and women who serve this country and thank them and ington.ize that they are a key have a wonderful memorial day captioned by closed captioning services, inc. >> chris: i'm chris wallace. on this memorial day weekend the u.s. faces military and diplomatic challenges. we'll discuss stalled talks with iran. continuing tensions with pakistan. and the war in afghanistan. with one of the gop's leading voices on foreign policy, senator john mccain. then, catholic institutions take the obama administration to court over its insurance mandate on contraception. is it an issue of religious freedom or women's health? we will ask a top church official pushing the legal challenge, cardinal donald wuerl, archbishop of washington. plus, are president obama's campaign attacks on mitt romney's business record working? we will ask our sunday group
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which side has the winning message. and our power player of the week. a remarkable story of devotion to country and sacrifice you won't want to miss, all right now on "fox news sunday." >> chris: and hello again on this memorial day weekend from fox news in washington. as we he remember those who have given their lives defending our country, we continue to face foreign policy challenges. here to tackle all that is senator john mccain. and senator, become back to "fox news sunday." >> thanks for having me on, especially on memorial day. >> there has been as you well know another ms. query i massan syria. government forces killed more than 90 people including more than 30 children. you can see the bodies just stacked up like cordwood here. and the white house apparent desided to start vetting some of the rebels and perhaps to
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let other arab countries arm them. is that enough? >> of course, not. and it is only about a year too late. this is a shameful episode in american history. it began back in 2009 when we refused -- when the president of the united states refused to speak up on behalf of the demonstrators in the treats of tehran and gone from one episode to another. here over a year and now talking about possibly vetting some people. look, nearly 10,000 people have died. this is a brutal regime of incredible proportions and by the way, if bashar asaad failed it it would be the greatest flow to iran in the last 25 years because it would cut off hezbollah. et cetera. horrible things are happening in syria. this administration has a
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federal government feckless foreign policy which abandons foreign policy. i know because i visited with these people that they are willing to help these people and they are already helping them some. it cries out for american leadership. american leadership is not there. >> chris: let me follow up. there is a story on the front page of the new york times that president obama is considering trying to get assad out diplomatically with the help of the russians. how likely do you think that is? >> again, here we are a year later, 10,000 killed and the main supplier of arms to asaad we are going to convince them that our hopes now rest on convincing them to ease out asaad. comparing it to yemen of which there is no comparison. it is really just a sad story and what the conclusion you can -- the only conclusion you can draw is that this president wants to kick the can downtrod on all the issues until after
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the election. after that i will be more flexible after i'm reelected and it is really an abdication of everything america stands for and believes in and on memorial day we should be especially moved by this incredible inaction and failure to assert american leadership. >> chris: you were saying before you came on the say air that you see a pattern in syria and afghanistan and pakistan with the pakistanis thumbing their those at us by taking this doctor who apparently helped to find bin laden and sentencing him to 33 years in prison for tre treason. >> you have to look at it in its entirety. if you look at one country you are puzzled. it has is to do with a foreign policy led my a president who does not believe in american exceptionalism.
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began in iran when we failed to stand up in 2009. in libya we led from behind. the war was much longer because we didn't use american air power. with iran clearly we are kicking the can down the road. how many times have we seen north korea and iran the different negotiations that have taken place. in afghanistan obviously the taliban believe that we are leaving. in pakistan, why would they directly insult america by putting a doctor who helped us apprehend or take out the most notorious terrorist in the world and they put him in prison for 33 years? it is because the pakistanis believe that we are leaving. this president, have you ever heard the word victory come through the lips of this president? because we are always talking about withdrawal. withdrawal. withdrawal. and, of course, iraq is unraveling and because we
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didn't leave a residual force there and the negotiations with iran, could i just give you a quote. catherine ashton is the eu foreign policy chief about the negotiations with iran. ", what we have now is is some common ground and a meeting in place where we can take that further forward." i'm not making that out. so we continue -- next we will meet -- they are going to meet in moscow and meanwhile, we are accepting enriched uranium which was -- which we said they couldn't do and the iranians have not been deterred. meanwhile the israelis are watching with great concern as there is no change in the progress. >> chris: let me ask you about iran. as you say, there was a round of talks and the only thing they agreed on was another round of talks next month in moscow. meanwhile the iranians continue to install more centrifuges and there were also traces found at one of the sites of more highly
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enriched uranium. not 20% but 27%. question, is it time to give up on diplomacy? >> i think it is time to draw red lines, the united states and israel together and say as the president of the united states has said that it is unacceptable for them to acquire nuclear weapons and -- >> chris: what do you mean by red line? >> stop the enrichment. allow the iae inspectors in. >> chris: and give them a deadline? >> at least red lines that if you cross those red lines then all options are on the table. >> chris: you say all options are on the table and we always say that. >> look, i can't sit here in front of you and say i'm absolutely in favor of military action but there has to be a red line which they cross and then they must face the consequences. action can take a variety of ways besides all out air attacks but the fact is right now the iranians despite the harm to their economy and there has been significant harm to their economy, have not changed
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one iota from the path that they are on. >> chris: let me ask you about another country egypt which has just held the first round -- >> should i just say finally, that option has to be on the table and the iranians have to know that or there will be no success in these negotiations. >> chris: okay. egypt has just completed its first round of the first free elections for president ever and now looks like there will be a run off in between muhammad morsi and a former general who was mubarak's last prime minister. do we support shafiq because he would maintain close relations with israel and the u.s. and block the muslim brotherhood from taking control of the entire country and possibly creating an islamic state? >> we can't weigh in on this, chris. there is strong antiamericannism in egypt for a whole variety of reasons but we
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have to stay out of it. if it is a fair democratic process we have to recognize the result of that and work with whoever wins. >> and what if it as muslim brotherhood president and muslim brotherhood parliament? >> i think that that could be -- that could have a serious consequences. but i would also point out that there are different gradients of the muslim brotherhood. they were once the only opposition to mubarak in egypt. mubarak was going to go and anybody who thinks he wasn't doesn't recognize the hinge of history. so we have to try to work with the new regime. i'm very worried mainly about their economy which is they are running out of hard currency. they are facing extreme economic difficult yos. we have to respect that election if it's free and fair and work with whoever is the winner. i would say right now it is a very strong possibility of a polarization of egyptian
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society no matter who wins. >> chris: let's turn to afghanistan. we talked about american soldiers in harm's way. we still have 90,000 troops and down to 60,000 by the end of the summer and the president has set a timeline with the nato allies to get all of our forces out in two and a half years. you or other critic ups of the president say we shouldn't have this timeline. we need more time to help train the afghan forces to stand up and defend themselves. here is my question, who is is training the taliban? they don't seem to need ten years of training to fight. why do our allies need ten years of training? >> for a variety of reasons including insurgency warfare doesn't require the training that it does for a regular military that encounter insurgency. most importantly, again, the taliban believe that we are leaving. the president has announced withdrawal after withdrawal. the president has overridden the recommendations of the military commanders who he has
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recommended -- who he has not recommended, who he has put in their positions. and the president has increased the risk every time. famous story about the taliban captive in the american interrogator and he says you have got the watches, we have got the time. there is still the hakani network working killing americans. >> chris: pakistani intelligence. >> still corruption at most levels and now plans on reducing the afghan army by 00,000 at a time when they will be in the most severe economic difficulties. again, the entire region believes that the united states of america is withdrawing and they have to live in the neighborhood and they are taking the accommodations and that is not good for america. >> before i let you go i want to talk briefly about 2012 politics. you have criticized president obama for going after mitt
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romney and bain capital as "class warfare at its worst." we had our researchers look at what you were saying against mitt romney when you were running against him and you said this about romney. he managed companies and he bought and sold and sometimes people lost their jobs. and your campaign manager saided this about bain. you go and buy companies, you you strip away the jobs and resell them. weren't youen gaging in the same kind of class war fare are. >> first of all, i don't speak for my campaign manager he speaks for himself. this is the free enterprise system. the only place in the world where i can recall that companies never sail is the old soviet union. this is what investors do in the free enterprise and capitalist system. when you take $5 million in a warehouse and you end up with staples i would argue that is what it is all about. yes, free enterprise system can be cruel but the problem with this administration is that small businesses are the ones
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who is suffered the most. the kind that need investors. the kinds that don't need the hundreds of pages. thousands of pages of regulations that continue to plague them and have them hold back on hiring and investment. and this is memorial day and i thank you for having me. >> chris: i wanted to in 30 seconds or whatever time you need as the son and the grandson of military men and as a war hero yourself. >> and a son in the navy. >> chris: and a son in the navy. >> and one in the marines, too. >> chris: your thoughts on memorial day? >> the great honor of my life it was to have the opportunity long ago and far away bo served in the company of heros. they inspired us to do things that we never would have been capable of. our motto was home with honor and because of their leadership and their love for us we did come home with honor.
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>> chris: senator mccain thank you for coming in today and especially on this day. we thank you for your service to this nation. up next, the obama contraception mandate that catholic leaders are now
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>> chris: some 43 catholic organizations sued the government this week seeking to overturn the mandate that many religious institutions must offer insurance to cover contraception. joining us one of the church leaders behind the effort, cardinal donald wuerl, archbishop of washington. your eminence, welcome back to "fox news sunday." >> thank you.
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great to be with you. >> chris: the white house says almost 99% of women including a lot of catholic women use contraception at some point in their lives and many struggle to afford it so they call this a women's health issue. they also note that 28 states already require health insurance plans to cover birth control. your response? >> this whole lawsuit isn't about contraception. it is about religious freedom. embedded in the mandate is a radically new definition of what constitutes a religious community. what constitutes religious ministries. brand new. never before applied at the federal level. that is what we are arguing about. the lawsuit says we have every right to serve in this community as we have served for decades and decades. the new definition says you are not really religious if you serve people other than your
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own and if you hire people other than your own. that wipes out all of the things that we have been doing, all of the things that we contribute to the common good. our schools. our healthcare services. our catholic charities. even parish soup kitchens and pantries. all that is wiped out. >> chris: let me pick up on that because the white house says the famous accommodation by president obama that they have changed the mandate so that the insurance companies that you are dealing with to provide health insurance coverage to your employees have to provide the birth control for free and if the charities, the schools, the hospitals don't have to do anything. >> this is one of the reasons why we have been saying the accommodation really didn't change anything because so many of our institutions, certainry the archdiocese is self-insured. we are the insurer. so when you say don't worry, we
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have changed it so only the insurer has to pay and we are the insurer, there is no accommodation. >> chris: they are saying well over the next year we are taking public comment on this and we will tweak that regulation so that the self-insurers won't have to provide the birth control. >> the last time the government said we going to hear from you on this, 200,000 suggestions went in and not one of them was accepted. what was in the presentation before the request for suggestions is exactly what the administration pointed out. by the way, it is law. it is law right now. all of this conversation about maybe we will find a way around it. that is conversation. what is law right now is that that definition is what we are going to have to live with. and that is why we have gone into court because not united states if there is an impass on something as fundamental as
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your rights you go in to court and that way you scrape away all of the politics. >> chris: i don't know if you have heard about this but if you haven't i will inform you. what do you make of the fact that the broadcast networks have spent a grand total of 19 seconds this week on their evening newscasts, 19 seconds covering the lawsuits by the 43 catholic organizations. what do you make of that? >> it is puzzling particularly since they are focusing so much attention right now. it seems to me that somehow they missed the vote. they missed the story. and that that is why i think it is so important we have a moment like this. >> chris: do you think it is political bias on the part of the networks? >> i think we have to take a look at this in the much larger picture and certainly people have their own mindset when they come at an issue. that is one of the reasons why we will continue just to say to our people the issue is
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religious liberty. >> chris: i'm going pick up on that because as you well know there is a split within the catholic church on this issue. 13 catholic diocese did file suit but that means more than 180 did not file suit and some of our fellow bishops, especially in california are are saying that this seems to be part of a political campaign by some conservative leaders against president obama. >> i don't know where that is coming from because there was one bishop who was quoted. he issued a statement saying he is totally supportive of all of this including the lawsuits. so i don't know where that story is coming from. i know it is out there. but again this is one of the reasons why it is important to have a program like this where we can speak directly to the people rather than have people. >> chris: are you saying there is no split within the church on this issue? >> i have yet to see among the bishops any split at all. and again the bishop who was quoted assaying he was
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concerned issued a statement saying that what was said about him was not his position. and as for how many diocese have actually gone in to court, our thinking when we had the great decision of the supreme court that said you can't segregate public schools, there was one case. that didn't invalidate the argument that segregation was wrong. when you say there must be some division in the church because not every diocese has gone to court, there are dioceses and institutions, universities, hospitals, all across the country who have gone in to court. the idea was to make this representative of the church in the united states. it would be physically impossible to get every diocese into court at the same time. >> chris: meanwhile, mitt romney came out this week for allowing federal funds to be used by low income parents to send their kids to any public
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school they want or even to some private schools and parochial schools. you support that idea, don't you? >> the idea that money should follow the child. we all pay taxes for education. why doesn't that money follow the parents of the kid? for example, here if you live in the district of columbia if you are very wealthy or have a lot of support you can send your child to a very exclusive private school. but if you live in the inner city, if you live in some of the poorest neighborhoods you don't get an option. that is why the catholic church is there and that is why we have our schools in the center city saying we will give you a chance to get a decent education and we will pay for it. wouldn't it be fair, wouldn't it be just, wouldn't it be really honest if every child got a chance at a real true
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academically excellent education and one way to do that is let the parents have a choice. >> chris: do you think mormons are true christians. >> i never get into defining other people. i define myself. that is one of the reasons we are in court. i don't want the president to define me so i'm not going to define someone else. >> chris: finally and you were saying all the attention being given to it but it is a fascinating story so i will ask you in the time we have left. the pope's butler has been arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents including personal letters of the pope to the news media and these letters seem to show cronyism and corruption. what would you tell catholics. >> i wouldn't worry so much about what i'm reading in the newspapers about something that media has reported in italy about something that someone
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says is going on. i'm not really all together certain that the butler's access to some documents is really the major concern of the church or should be the major concern of people in the united states of america today. we have so many other issues. one of them, for example, is we are going to be celebrating memorial day. we going to be turning our attention to those brave women and men who died in the defense of this country of its freedom, of its constitution, and then the ability of all of us to carry on our way of life. i think that is what our focus should be this coming memorial day as we simply recognize who we are. by the way, that is one of the reasons we are in court. we are saying, we are saying we have been told all along the reason we bury in flags these
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brave men and women is because they were defending our predom and our constitution. >> chris: well done, cardinal. thank you so much. always an honor to speak with you. >> chris: up next, the sunday panel discusses president obama's continuing attacks on mitt romney's business record. is that strategy working? how much coffee are you fellows going to need today?
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so you can get a lot done without refills. it's packed with b-vitamins and nutrients to make it last. so don't just stand there holding your lattes, boys. make your move. we'll take the 5-hour energy. smart move. 5-hour energy. hours and hours of energy. the job of a president is to lay the foundation for strong and sustainable broad-based growth. not one where a small group of speculators are cashing in on short-term gains. >> there is no question but that he is attacking capitalism in part i think because he doesn't understand how the free economy he works. >> chris: president obama and mitt romney going after each other on the issue dominating the campaign these days. the roll of private equity and who is more qualified to put
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america back to work. time for our sunday group. brit hume, fox news senior political analyst. kirsten powers. kimberly strassel and jeff zeleny. i want to start with the column in the "wall street journal" in it which you said that mitt romney's alleged brand of vulture capitalism is timid, mild compared to barack obama's. explain. >> i think the argument here, i think you just heard the president talk about this has said the wrap on private equity and bain and romney is that how this is profit driven free enterprise is ruthless and that the job of the president should be much more than that and that is why romney is unqualified. is interesting is you had an example of how the president would view capitalism and he has done it with solyndra and detroit and what you have are examples of what that proves is that even when the government is running business which it seems to be his idea of how you
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do it you still get bankruptcies and layoffs and tens of millions of dollars of lost taxpayer money and subsidies and mandates and political favoritism of the sort you saw in the bailout of the united auto workers being put ahead of corporate bondholders. this ought to be a contrast that romney is out there making. >> chris: do you think that is fair? >> a totally fair contrast to make and i think the obama administration overpromised on a lot of things. a lot of the criticism for solyndra is overstated because it was a small portion of the overall money spent in the program. the issue that the white house is trying to make with romney and romney is pretending that he thinks this is about an attack on capitalism which it is not at all. and the administration could do a better job making clear they are not attacking private equity. they are saying private equity is not about creating jobs, it is about creating wealth and romney is equating wealth
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creation with job creation. any private equity person they are not there to create jobs. >> chris: criticized for attacks on bain and capitalism. they put out a video. >> duvall patrick. >> senator feinstein. >> ron cable. >> chris. governor ed rendell. >> chris: but the obama campaign said this weekend that they are not backing off and they will ten the attacks on bain and in fact they will broaden it and link it to governor romney's record as governor of massachusetts. are they making a mistake? >> i thought, chris, when the issue first arose during the primary campaign that romney needed to be prepared for it to come even harder during the general and that he would need a make a very broad defense not
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simply by saying yes, we lost jobs in some of our enterprises we invested in but we created a lot more jobs or something like that. i thought he needed to make a broad-based defense of private equity investment linking it to the growth of the economy, the renewal of american business in many cases and so on. i'm beginning to think that i may have been wrong about that. this has been so clumsily handled by the administration. so many democrats have recoiled from it that i'm beginning to think that maybe he doesn't need to do that. this is turning out to be kind of a blind alley for the obama administration because of several things. one of those are the examples that kim cited in other column but the others are are that the president has with fundraisers, members of his administration and so forth in numerable ties that the whiff of hypocrisy
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backs unmistakable. >> chris: there is a narrative that the between the blowback of bain and the fact that the president has gone so negative and personal on romney so early that he stumbled out of the gate. do you buy that? >> it is too early to know. the reality is the obama campaign always planned to use the two months of the summer, may june and july to try to define mitt romney. we are not sure if it is being successful or not. the rollout of bain capital was really nothing short of a disaster for them and they had a lot of time to do this. at least in the eastern sort of atlantic coastal region. >> chris: like the governor of pennsylvania and the mayor of newark had their own ties to private equity. >> all democrats, right. what matters is how they is internalized by voters in ohio and wisconsin and michigan. it is far too early to say that the president's campaign has
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stumbled coming out of the gate. i think it looks like they are not quite up to speed on the campaign. they haded a year to get this ready but the romney campaign isn't fighting for them. they just finished a primary and it is clear that the obama cal pain is slower here but they are trying to define mitt romney. come august we will see where mitt romney is stand. if he is as strong as he is in august as he is right now the obama campaign is in real trouble and they realize that it is going to be a tight election. i think the ups and downs of the weeks are not as important as how the voters are internalizing the messages now. >> chris: inup cumbent presidents generally tend to be some what show in getting off the presidential mantle, pedestal in attacking their opponent. usually mid summer, july, sealed air before they start sayinaugust. this president is going it after romney personally, negatively, by name. and david axlrod the
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president's chief strategist is there is no point in being coy about this. >> i think the brand has to be of a fighter. that is what some democrats wanted to see a all along here. it is no mistake that this is happening. they are doing it on purpose because they are trying to define mitt romney. who better to try and define him but the president himself. they tried surrogates defining him for the last year or so so the president is aggressively going after him. of course, he will lose some of the brand of independent votes here. even if the bain thing is not perfect for democrats this is til being fought on romney's turf. every one of the stories is pointing out he is a business leader are and has experience experience and that why they are giving him strong marks. even though they are not sure what he would do on the economy they still have hope that mitt romney could handle this better than this president. >> chris: kim? >> i think that is part of the disquiet of democrats which is that, yes, he is coming out and attacking very hard.
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what they are worried about is since he has come out of the gate we have had a week of discussion about contraception. a week of discussion about student loans and now the hard and heavy hit on mitt romney. the question is how do they define themselves? this election is going to be about jobs and there is a worry among democrats he is rushing to all the different subjects and not saying -- >> chris: i'm struck by that, too. seems to be precious little conversation by the president about one, what he has accomplished in his four years in office and two a kind of understandable plan for what he wants to do over the next four years. >> they understand that this is a referendum on him and they are trying to make it into a referendum on romney because the economy is not doing as well as they would like it to be. the polls are showing he is struggling with white working class voters and so what they want to do is convince people that romney does not have the experience to create jobs.
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and so that is why they are going after the bain thing. and remember that they had other attacks that didn't work that he had no core and then he was -- they go through these different things and don't quite stick and now this is the one they latched on. >> chris: brit, final thoughts? >> thought about this kirsten references twice the president and his team seem to think that this idea that you are creating wealth is unrelated to creating jobs. every business person who runs a hamburger stand understands you are trying to make a profit and that the business of making a profit has jobs as a byproduct. it is not as if there is some favorite industry out there called jobs are us which is in business for the purpose of creating jobs. it isn't how it works and makes the president sound to even people who are not deeply sophisticated about wall street like he doesn't get how the whole system works. i think it may in fact be true that he doesn't get how the whole system works. >> chris: we have to take a break. we key come back, the sunday panel breaks down new
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challenges for the u.s. overseas.
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>> chris: that was the scene in a syrian village where more than 90 people including more than 30 children were massacred by government forces. an attack that is being widely condemned by the u.s. and other countries. and we are back now with the panel. brit, could this massacre be the tipping point? could the u.s. now get involved, start arming or providing indirectly to other arab countries arms undefine aa way to try to force asaad out?
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>> it could. particularly if the administration decided to follow up on the doctrine it proclaimed during the intervention in libya. remember, responsibility to protect which is considered by the so-called international community and by the u.s. as a reason for intervening remember, to prevent the bombing of benghazi. there was a denounceiation by the secretary of state of the attack on houla yesterday. we don't yet see the president trying to make the case for some sort of military intervention on our part or with other countries. wwhen we start to hear that, that is the tipping point. >> chris: is it your sense that the u.s. will remain on o the sidelines or get involved.
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>> at this point they haven't indicated they would no dig but you stand on the sidelines. with libya they turned on a dime and decided they were going to. those type of decisions box them in. then there is the question why libya and why not syria. they say that they thought a genocide was happening in libya and perhaps they don't consider what is going on in syria as being as serious. >> chris: 9,000 plus kill. >> they don't seem to be reacting to it with the same sense of urgency. >> chris: let me move to another trouble spot i discussed with john mccain and that is egypt. a runoff and going to be mean muhammad morsi who is a member of the muslim brotherhood and former general ahmed shafiq. is this another case where we have to remain on the sidelines even though we are not happy
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about the muslim brotherhood taking control. >> you do see a movement toward free and timely elections which is what needs to happen. not everybody there is thrilled with the two choices including a lot of egyptians. but you are seeing some good omens. now, that you had a couple more of the candidates who got out of the race because of the last round you have the two who are remaining moving in a little more centrist fashion trying to get the vote and support of the other people. the most important thing you can't really move ahead in egypt until you have this settled. there has been a lot of complains about military council rule. this is the first step in making sure that it happens. >> chris: looking at syria and egypt and the continuing stalemate and looming deadlines in iran and we will get to that in detail in a minute. how much of a role will foreign policy play? >> up until right now it played
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a shockingly small role in this campaign. we talked about afghanistan a little bit but not even that much given the fact that there isn't an ongoing war are there but there is very little conversation in this. as we move into the general election which we are, i think we are probably going to hear more from the romney campaign on what he thinks the administration should be doing and there is a big opening here for him, i think. i would not be surprised at all if he sort of follows the lead here of senator mccain who was very aggressive this morning on your air calling it a feckless policy, a feckless administration. they are spending monday campaigning together. governor romney and mccain. i think it will play more of a role here in the end. what is happening in egypt is a great example. a year ago it looked like the revolution was a good thing but now the hope for any type of a middle ground is not necessarily there. it is a wore arery for this administration but i think an opening for the romney
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campaign. >> chris: i hate to be so cynical about this. where are the votes on foreign policy. is this country so war weary, the obama campaign certainly seems to think that getting out of iraq and getting out of afghanistan and staying on the sidelines in syria is where the public sentiment is. >> they are probably right on that and there is a weariness in terms of spending and other things. is one of the other reasons it is hard to even imagine four years after 2008 when mccain was the nominee and eight years after 2004 when national security sort of the policy against democrats was the central scene republicans now are just as eager to sort of end the war in afghanistan and spending and things. i do think there haven't votes specifically on foreign policy but it becomes a leadership issue and is going to behoove governor romney to start talking about this. he understands these issues, he is a very smart guy. it is not going to be the central issue, the chi is.
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i woulthe -- the economy is. >> chris: as we mentioned with mccain, the u.s. and allies met with the iranians this week in iraq, held another round of meetings. the only tangible agreement was they are going to hold a third round mckinle in moscow in mid. is diplomacy going to run out at some point. in where does this go? >> looks like diplomacy is not going anywhere and the iranians are stalling which is what they have been doing for years. this will go on the ledger i think of foreign policy failure. if things go from bad to worse in iraq that might end up there as well. the situation in afghanistan where we are leaving may deteriorate as well. this administration had a case to make on foreign policy. they got rid of bin laden. the president says we are ending these conflicts but if it all starts to go south in a number of different places and
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the world often doesn't cooperate with your political schedule, the president could end up deeply on the defensive about foreign policy going to the election. it is true that this country is war weary. weary of the expense and loss of life and all the rest of it. but it is also accustomed to the united states playing a leadership role in the world and when things start to go badly people more or less with specifics expect the u.s. leadership and the president to do something about it. if he appears to be failing to do something about it or not even trying i think that could be a serious burden on his reelection chances. >> chris: kirsten? >> i think the campaign will be 00% about jobs and very little about foreign policy. on the substance of iran, the white house thinks the sanctions are working and think that eran is getting weaker and their hope is that the diplomacy will work so we have to wait and see what happens with the upcoming meetings. >> chris: for instance in july when the oil embargo goes into effect, then you will begin to see weakening on the part of
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the iranians? >> they already feel there is weakening because iran is having trouble selling oil. >> chris: but continuing the centrifuges and enriching. >> the more trouble they have selling oil the more likely they are to come to the table. that is the view because that is where they make the bulk of the money and what supports their government. the sanctions already in effect are making if very, very difficult for them to sell that oil. >> chris: kim, about 30 seconds. >> things tend to blow up precisely because there is a lack of u.s. leadership and that is the worry for the obamaed administration. they ceded out the syria process to the u.n. and that is not going well. hoping to nurse iran through until after the elections. israel decides to act or there continues to be great silence in syria they may get the reputation of having moved in there and that could reflect badly on them. >> chris: see you next week. don't forget to check out panel plus where our group picks up
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with the discussion on our website fox news sunday .com. and follow us on twitter @ fox news sunday. we he want to remind you about my wife lorraine's new cookbook, mr. sunday's saturday night chicken. go to fox news sunday .com for her recipe for butterflied grilled chicken. i can assure you, it is perfect for a holiday weekend. up next, a special power player of the week you won't want to miss.
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>>. >> chris: it's all too easy to think of memorial day weekend a time for barbecues and other family get-togethers but there is much deeper meaning to the holiday. here is our power player of the week. >> every day is a memorial day for me. i think every day is a memorial day to the rest of this country. >> brian knows about devotion to country and sacrifices it can demand. they have lived it. she and her brother travis grew up in the military. >> the first song was at marine corps hymn. >> chris: travis excelled in everything he did. he went to the naval academy intending to follow in his father's footsteps.
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attack in 9/11 deepened his resolve. >> he wanted to be there in the fight and go as quickly as he could. >> he was on second tour when his unit was ambushed in fallujah. the first lieutenant was rescuing some of his wounded comrades when he was killed by a sniper. >> he had exposed himself. >> he did on two occasions. >> and all of them survived? >> they did. >> when the family learned of his death back in doylestown. they were devastated but determined. >> we have to work together to make sure that his legacy lives on. we've got to honor him. >> chris: his mother started the travis man yon foundation. it is what kept her going. >> i feel some comfort in the fact knowing he died for his country and he loved what he did. >> chris: the goal is to honor the fallen by challenging the
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living by corporate sponsorships like gm and comcast. one went to family of lance corporal shane harris who was killed in 2006 for a project in guatemala. >> they build a house for a homeless family in five days. the only thing that shows that it was for shane harris is tiny little plaque above the door. >> chris: but in 2010 they faced another tragedy when navy seal, travis's best friend was killed in afghanistan. the two families decided to bury their boys together at arlington national cemetery. >> there is nothing more beautiful knowing that they lay together with all these warriors and side by side. >> chris: last memorial day president obama visited their graves and talked about their devotion to duty. >> brotherhood, sacrifice, love
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of country. >> chris: but the story doesn't end there. last september janet manion was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. she fought for nine months while continuing to run the foundation before she finally succumbed in april, just days before the fifth anniversary of travis's death. in her will there was one special directive. >> that the foundation continues on through family and friends. >> it inspires me the reason i'm standing before all of you is my brother travis. >> she took over from her mom. >> i don't know how many times i've had people say to me, wow, you have big shoes to fill. i do. i couldn't be more proud of the family that i have. >> chris: so ryan and the rest of her family will spend the rest of the memorial day in
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arlington, honoring travis and brendan and to all the others. >> don't be afraid to go up to a family that you know has lost a loved one in the war and just say thank you because just knowing that people remember is one of the greatest feelings the family of a fallen can have. >> chris: after we talked ryan gave me this bracelet that has the names of travis and brendan and inscription, warriors for freedom, brothers forever. if you would like to find out more about the foundation, go to the website. some time if th weekend remember what she said, just say thanks to those that gave their lives for our freedom. we'll see you next fox news sunday.